Hippos of former drug lord Pablo Escobar pose environmental problem

Posted: June 27, 2014 - 10:01am

PUERTO TRIUNFO, Colombia, June 26 (UPI) -- Infamous drug lord Pablor Escobar built a zoo for his son in the 1980s. Roaming the acreage of his ranch, Hacienda Napoles, in Colombia's Puerto Triunfo -- 200 miles northwest of the capital, Bogotá -- were several elephants, giraffes, and four hippos.

When the drug lord passed in 1993, the elephants and giraffes found their way into several Colombian zoos. But more than two decades after Escobar was shot dead by Colombian National Police, and the hippos still roam free. Only now, there are more than four.

Escobar's ranch, after years of neglect, was repurposed as a park, with local environmental authorities taking responsibility for the upkeep. The hippos have apparently thriven -- maybe a little too much. Officials estimate that here are some 50 or 60 hippos in the park.

But locals say they've expanded beyond the zoo walls.

"They found a creature in a river that they had never seen before, with small ears and a really big mouth," said Carlos Valderrama, a conservationist with the local group Webconserva. "The fishermen, they were all saying, 'How come there's a hippo here?'" he told the BBC. "We started asking around and of course they were all coming from Hacienda Napoles. Everything happened because of the whim of a villain."